There were so many dragons in the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 3 (as there should be) that it’s hard to focus on the most surprising reveal. Sure, we finally saw Helaena’s dragon, and the girls were fighting in the Riverlands (Ceraxes, Sheepstealer, and Syrax). But how the heck is Sunfyre alive on House of the Dragon?
Everyone assumed that King Aegon II’s dragon succumbed to injuries at the battle of Rook’s Rest that kicked off season 3. He was lying pretty still on the battlefield. However, here he comes in episode 7 to save Aegon Targaryen and his new reluctant BFF, Tyland Lannister, from a random attack. Thanks? How did that even happen?
Sunfyre is not looking quite as hot as he used to, unfortunately. He’s about as scarred and busted as Aegon himself. We likely won’t see what happened to him—flashbacks like that aren’t really House of the Dragon’s style.
However, this does align with George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. In the source material, Sunfyre was just sleeping it off and couldn’t fly for a while. So he walked around Westeros instead.
That has not stopped fans from coming up with theories that Aegon did accidental blood magic and resurrected him, or that he’s blind now. (Remember how Aegon insisted he was alive? Was that just a dragonrider bond thing or something more?) Others have happily accepted that the shiny boy was just resting and recuperating all season. Where are the dragon physical therapists?!
Sunfyre has a major role to play in the final season.
Spoilers for future House of the Dragon episodes!
It’s not that surprising that Sunfyre returned at the end of season 3, because in the books he’s the one who will ultimately kill Rhaenyra on House of the Dragon. Aegon, who is at that time back on the Iron Throne, feeds her to him. I don’t see a world in which the HBO show changes that scene. Like it or not, it’s kind of the tragic ending we’re all here to see.
Joffrey Baratheon (Lannister) actually talks about it on Game of Thrones, so they kind of have no choice. Frankly, because of this, I was a little surprised that folks thought Sunfyre was actually dead. But, hey, the show has made some big changes to Fire & Blood already... And we did see a body, which is typically the Game of Thrones rule.
The operative word there, of course, is typically. So many characters have had fake-out deaths this season including someone who was in that scene: Tyland Lannister. What is House of the Dragon trying to prepare us for? Who are they going to pretend to kill next? Or is this a reverse Boy Who Cried Wolf situation, and the next person we think isn’t really dead actually never returns just to prove us wrong? Very suspicious...
